Furniture



E. BROWN Oct. 3, 1961 FURNITURE Filed July 29, 1958 f/wz/wve, w/ Brown United States Pate 3,002,789 FURNITURE Edmund Brown, Wellington St, Oldham, England Filed July 29, 1958, Ser. No. 751,728 2 Claims. (Cl. 297-462) This invention relates to furniture and in particular to backless seats, cushions and footrests such as those known as pouties.

Such articles are generally of substantially cylindrical shape and comprise a case which is stufied in such a fashion that a layer of flock or similar material is located adjacent the seat portion, the remainder of the case being filled with tightly packed wood wool or similar material. Such articles are heavy in weight and tend to become distorted in shape, particularly after long and heavy use.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a construction of such articles of furniture which provides an article which is lighter in weight, more rigid in shape, and which will retain its shape even after long and heavy use.

According to the invention there is provided an article of furniture which comprises a casing, a rigid hollow former within said casing, and a stuffing or resilient ma terial between said former and said casing about all sides of said former, or about all sides excepting the base side thereof.

Where the article is of cylindrical form the former may be a closed-ended cylinder of plywood, metal, manufactured fibreboard or synthetic material. One or both ends of the article may then be padded or upholstered with a suitable material, such as a natural or synthetic resilient sponge material, flock, horsehair, or wood wool. The space between the periphery of the stifiening cylinder and the cylindrical walls of the case may be filled with a layer of similar material.

In a preferred construction the layer of upholstery or stufiing which is located adjacent the seat portion of the article may be of higher quality than the stufiing which is located about the peripheral walls of the stitfening former. For example, the material adjacent the seat may be foam rubber or foam plastic, either in the form of an integral cushion or in small pieces, or flock or rubberised horsehair, whilst the peripheral walls may be stuffed with a cheaper stuifing material such as wood wool or the like. If desired, a layer of the cheaper stufiing material may be provided between the end of the forming cylinder and the higher quality stulfing material immediately adjacent the seat.

In order that the invention may be clearly understood, a specific construction of an article of furniture according to the invention and the method of constructing this will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying diagrammatic drawing which shows a section through a cylindrical pouife according to the invention.

In the poutfe shown in the drawing a case 1 which may be of leather cloth or any similar material and which may be made in one piece or in a number of pieces is filled in the manner shown. The layer 2 is of high quality upholstery such as foam rubber or foam plastic either in the form of an integral cushion or in small pieces of flock or rubberised horsehair. The second layer 3 beneath the layer 1 is of a cheaper upholstery material such as wood wool. These layers are supported upon a disc 4 which is conveniently of plywood and which carries a number of blocks or an annular ring 5 which serves to locate a cylinder 6 centrally of the article of furniture.

The space 7 between the cylinder 6 and the outer case 1 is again filled with the cheaper upholstery material such as wood wool. The lower end of cylinder 6 is closed by a disc 8 which again may be of plywood and which ice is of a greater diameter than the cylinder and serves to provide a base for the poutfe. The case is drawn round the edge of the cylinder 8 and secured to it by means of pins, tacks or staples and the bottom of the disc is concealed by a disc of covering material 9 which is fastened to the wooden disc 8 in a similar manner. It will be appreciated that the discs 4 and 8 and the cylinder 6 may be of other material than plywood. They may, for example, be of wood or of metal or of a manufactured fibre board or synthetic material such as a filled synthetic resin.

In making the article the cylindrical casing 1, open at one end and made of leather, leather cloth or textile furnishing material is placed within a metal shape of the size and form which the completed article is to take and the layer 2 of high grade stufiing material is put in position adjacent the end of the casing which will be the seat of the final article. A layer 3 of a cheaper stufiing ma terial is then placed over the top of the first layer and a rigid hollow former 4 of plywood or other suitable material is put in place. This may consist of a disc of a diameter substantially the same as that of the inside of the casing to which there is secured a rigid plywood cylinder 6 of a lesser diameter, the cylinder being of a length such that it extends to the region of the base of the finished article.

The cylinder 6 may be secured to the disc 4 which forms its end by any suitable means, or alternatively it may simply be located in abutment with the disc and positioned by means of blocks 5 carried by the disc.

Pressure is now applied to the end of the forming cylinder adjacent the open end of the case and the region 7 between the outside of the forming cylinder walls and the inside walls of the case is filled with a stuffirrg material such as wood wool. This is packed firmly in place until the entire space between the cylinder and the case is filled. The pressure upon the end of the cylinder is now released whilst a base board '8 of the same diameter as the internal diameter of the case is placed in position abutting the end of the stiffening cylinder. This may be provided with blocks to locate it relative to the stiffening cylinder. Pressure is then again applied to the base to compress this within the case and the lower ends of the case walls 1 are carried about the underside of the base board and secured thereto by stapling, tacking, glueing, or other suitable means. The pressure is then released from the base board and this is covered with a disc 9 of material which may match that of the remainder of the case. The finished article is then removed from the metal shape. If desired, a decorative cord or waisting band may be secured in position about the cylindrical portion of the article.

It will be appreciated that the stufiing materials which have been described may be replaced by any known upholstering materials and that the cover may be in any sort of suitable material or materials and in any colours or design desired. The forming cylinder may also be made of material other than wood, for example a cylinder and discs of metal, of synthetic fibreboard, or even moulded filled plastic material may be used. Furthermore, the article need not be of cylindrical shape, the same construction being equally able to be applied to articles of rectangular shape or any other desired form. An article may be made in which each end is upholstered to form a seat, although, as will be appreciated, in this case the precise method of construction described above must be modified.

What I claim is:

1. An article of furniture comprising an elongate flexible casing having a circular and rounded top wall and a straight cylindrical side wall, said casing consisting of a single body of material, a rigid former within the casing and comprising a bottom disc, an upstanding hollow cylinder resting upon and centered on said bottom disc and a top disc resting upon the top of said cylinder and centered thereon, said top and bottom discs being of approximately the same diameter and concentrically positioned, said cylinder being spaced from the casing side wall and said top disc being spaced from the casing top wall and lying in a plane below the highest part of the casing side wall, the top disc projecting transversely beyond the outer side of the cylinder and being peripherally spaced from the casing side wall, the spacing of the top disc and cylinder from the casing side and top walls 10 forming a stufiing receiving area entirely around the cylinder and around and over the top disc, stufiing material filling and tightly compacted in said area, a bottom cover disc underlying the first bottom disc, the casing side wall having a bottom edge portion turned in and lying between said bottom discs, and securing means passing through said bottom discs and said turned in portion of the casing and securing the casing tightly around the stufiing material.

2. The invention according to claim 1, with an annular member having a thickness materially greater than that of the top disc and hollow cylinder and secured to the underside of the top disc and around said hollow cylinder for maintaining said cylinder centered within the cylindrical casing wall.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,712,412 Westerman May 7, 1929 2,509,395 Madan May 30, 1952 2,695,227 Holland Nov. 2, 1954 FOREIGN PATENTS 161,792 Great Britain Apr. 21, 1921 967,635 France Mar. 29, 1950 

